Armadillo team members Russ Blink and Phil Eaton were manning the Armadillo staging area late this afternoon, as the 2007 X Prize Cup wound down. Eaton confirmed that they had suffered another hard start, this one more violent than their previous ones. While fuel valves closed off in time, the downward force of the hard […]
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Brett Alexander, the executive director for space and X Prize Cup for the X Prize Foundation, brief the media a little while ago about the status of Armadillo’s final, failed flight. Some key points: There’s still little in the way of technical information about the engine failure this afternoon. There was not a catastrophic explosion […] Armadillo Aerospace has apparently suffered another, and this time catastrophic, hard start upon engine ignition, dashing their chances of winning any part of this year’s Lunar Lander Challenge. This time the hard start took place at the beginning of the first leg of the flight (not the return leg, as was the case this morning […] The latest as of about 12 noon MDT: According to both X Prize and Armadillo personnel, the Mod did not suffer a hard start at the beginning of the first leg of its morning flight (as well as the beginning of its afternoon flight yesterday); only the return legs have suffered these hard starts. According […] The latest from the media center: Armadillo will try again this afternoon (start time: 12:45 pm MDT) for level 1 of the Lunar Lander Challenge. They have replaced the engine on Mod with one cannibalized from Pixel. There is also the possibility of a third window late this afternoon, around when the air show ends […] Armadillo Aerospace’s third bid to win the Level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge failed this morning, again apparently because of continued engine problems. The vehicle appeared to fly well on the first leg of the flight, although the engine may have suffered a hard start on liftoff. On the return flight, the vehicle apparently lifted […] Here’s a video I shot of the final Mod flight of the day Saturday, which suffered the engine problem that prevented it from landing successfully. The lander is out of view for the second half of the video, hidden by the terrain (including an unfortunately-placed bush), but you can hear the audio of the play-by-play […] I talked briefly with John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace late this afternoon to find out what happened with their failed bid to win Level 1 of the Lunar Lander Challenge. He said that while they had a fine flight on the first leg of their bid, they found the injector clogged again during preparations for […] Armadillo came seven seconds and a few meters, it appears, from winning the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1 competition Saturday afternoon at Holloman AFB, NM. The first leg of the flight was flawless, as Mod rose up, translated, and landed on the other pad without incident. After some delays preparing the vehicle […] Armadillo Aerospace just left the staging area to head to the launch pad for their second attempt at the Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1. The problem that forced them to scrub the first attempt was with their igniter, which failed to work at the pad this morning. They found foreign debris in the igniter–perhaps […] |
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